


heal them with fire from above

by bugmadoo



Category: Emmerdale
Genre: Alternate Universe - Gods & Goddesses, Alternate Universe - Mythology, Fluff, M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-11-28
Updated: 2016-11-28
Packaged: 2018-09-02 20:48:16
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,372
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/8682859
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/bugmadoo/pseuds/bugmadoo
Summary: Being the god of the weather, Aaron is also responsible for the change in seasons. Year after year he’s the sun, he’s the wind, he’s summer and he’s winter. It’s a cycle that never ends and never changes.





	

**Author's Note:**

> This fic is basically an experiment and has little to do with _actual_ mythology since I took some (huge) liberties. I still hope you'll like it! Thanks to Ellie @hissingmiseries for betaing :)  
>  The title is taken from My God Is The Sun by Queens of the Stone Age

They say that you should not cross the god of the sea, for he is unpredictable and vengeful. His eyes are as green as the waves after a storm and his smile as sharp as drowning.

The waters listen to his every silent command, unspoken or not, and always know what they're supposed to do. Robert is powerful even for their standards. He can destroy whole countries without raking a finger, can drown whole villages, can turn whole swaths into fruitless chaos and can give humans grief and despair, rob them of their future.

When he’s well disposed towards the humans, however, he gives merchants a calm sea so none of ships sink, gives star-crossed lovers a slow and soft river so they can meet in the middle, and other rarer times he has mercy on those who want their lungs to fill with water and never come back up to the surface. The other gods don’t understand that particular human desire because death is something none of them worry about, but Aaron has always been close enough to the humans to understand them better than the others.

Aaron thinks this is the only part he understands about Robert.

+

Being the god of the weather, Aaron is also responsible for the change in seasons.

Year after year he’s the sun, he’s the wind, he’s summer and he’s winter. It’s a cycle that never ends and never changes. It’s reassuring in its predictability and gives him a stability he likes to lean on. He’s been asked before if the repetitiveness was boring him and his powers out of his mind, but the question makes Aaron smile. What they don’t know is that the weather and the seasons are one of the most delicate structures on earth. A lot of humans dedicate their entire lives, however short, to understanding it and predicting it, but despite their dedication, not many of them do.

Seasons may not change, but Aaron is more powerful than most gods and goddesses realise. They don’t know how it’s Aaron alone that decides how much the flowers and the crops are going to grow that year by how much water or sun he’s going to give them. Sometimes, he is surprised himself with how much power he holds in the tips of his fingers. If he wanted to, he could do so much damage that none of the species would survive it. Let it rain so much that rivers overflow, let the sun shine so brightly and long that the ground turns into sand, or fire that destroys any chance of life.

However, Aaron doesn’t disregard the humans half as much as the other gods seem to, so he does his best to contain the weather extremes as much as he can and lets the seasons change in the times they’re supposed to. More than once someone tries to keep Aaron from doing his work, but each of these attempts have been futile.

So Aaron is the keeper of the cycle of seasons because he likes it when things end the way they start.

+

Aaron watches Robert warily at first, eyebrows pulled together, head tilted in question. He watches as Robert snaps his fingers and a glass of water appears in his hand, half empty and very cool, judging from the beads of condensed water hesitantly running down the glass.

Despite himself Aaron can’t keep his eyes from watching Robert’s Adam’s apple bob up and down under his pale skin as he drinks it.

“You’re a destroyer,” Aaron says, arms crossed. Robert’s fingers twitch and Aaron thinks that maybe he is fighting the urge to reach for a weapon. It makes Aaron curious. The god of war is the only one Aaron has seen who is openly carrying one with him at all times. the others either hide theirs or don’t carry one at all. Aaron wants to know which Robert’s weapon of choice is.

Aaron’s alarm bells should go off, his instinct to protect himself should scream at him, maybe even hellhounds running from somewhere behind Robert to fight against Aaron’s lighting and sunshine, but instead they just keep staring at each other. Here is Aaron, sunshine on his heels, standing in the overcast and humid wetlands of Robert’s domain.

After a long while, Robert replies. “Why do you think that?”

“You’ve flooded nine towns in the last two years alone. You’re responsible for countless of deaths.”

Robert shakes his head, eyebrows raised. “The earth was so thirsty it was suffocating. I did what I had to do.”

“So what? You put that over the lives of innocent humans?”

“Who are the humans to think they’re above the needs of the earth that feeds them? A creature that’s millions of years older than them and that still will be here thousands of years after their death? We have to protect it because if we don’t, nobody else will.”

It’s the first time that Aaron can hear passion in Robert’s voice, his eyes glinting in Aaron’s sunshine. It’s mesmerizing.

“That’s a very pragmatic approach,” Aaron remarks and Robert smiles.

“It’s why we’re gods, isn’t it?” Robert replies, one hand waving in emphasis.

Even though Aaron is often called the protector of the humans (which most of them don’t see as the compliment Aaron takes it for), he has to admit he understands Robert’s logic.

+

He feels the sunshine dim a little and the leaves whisper. Aaron turns around and sure enough, there is Robert walking into Aaron’s domain, looking like he doesn’t trust his surroundings. Aaron thinks it’s a wonder Robert doesn’t look over his shoulder every two seconds. He should know that Aaron wouldn’t let anything happen to him in his domain, no matter how he feels about his visitor.

Robert squints when the sun returns to its normal strength, and he raises one hand to shield his eyes.

“Did you let any rivers overflow yet today?” Aaron asks, crossing his arms, a grin on his face.

Aaron thinks he sees a shadow rush over Robert’s face but it’s gone faster than Aaron can look twice. “I already told you, I only do it if necessary. What humans forget that the river makes their acres twice as fruitful the next year.”

+

Aaron tells Liv about Robert’s view of things. She’s the patron saint of flowers of all kinds and often comes to visit Aaron’s domain even just to complain about how Aaron needs more flowers in his. _They’d benefit from your precious sun_ , she says. It always makes Aaron pointedly look at the fields of wild flowers that already grow on his land and Liv always rolls her eyes at him.

“No wonder humans don’t like him.” It’s the only thing she says in regards to Robert.

+

It’s sunny in Aaron’s domain, a warm wind sweeping through the grass and through their hair. Aaron might be the god of the weather and the seasons but sunshine has always been his favourite. He’s used to it, used to the warmth and the light and the brightness. He likes it and misses it even though he knows that things like rain and clouds and snow are necessary to keep everything in balance.

Robert, however, needs more time than Aaron expects to get used to it. He squints and curses under his breath and drags Aaron under the shade of trees and caves.

When their lips meet for the first time the entire world itself turns hotter. The light becomes so bright, so white-hot, that no sunglasses the humans wore could protect them. When their tongues touch in a tangled dance, the sun becomes so strong, the wavelengths so short, that the grass starts growing faster.

+

They don’t want to be found out. It has to be kept a secret.

Relationships between gods and goddesses are tolerated but most of them take human lovers and don’t look back. They both decide not to let the others in on their secret for now, or maybe forever.

But they have to meet in Aaron’s domain. The clouds had noticed when Aaron visited Robert’s domain the last time and they had passed on the secret in hushed whispers as they ghosted over their lands. _It’s too risky_ , Robert had said the next time they met, _too dangerous_. Robert hasn’t exactly made friends over the years and there were people who would use it against him _. Immortals who don’t understand what I do_.

They might be immortal, but in their world there are other types of horrors and pain none of the humans could even begin to understand. If one of their enemies found out, well, there are Hellhounds, monsters of immeasurable danger and armies of unknown size to be released. They both would rather not risk it. After all, there is a place in the Underworld for gods and they don’t want to find themselves there.

So they keep it a secret and meet in Aaron’s domain.

Whenever Robert’s there, his eyes are almost the perfect mixture of green and blue because the sunlight lets them shine unlike anywhere else. In the beginning Robert scoffed at the aromatic flowers, shielded and narrowed his eyes at the bright light and even brighter colors, joked about the animals that stopped by to see Aaron sometimes, but Aaron sees more, sees the burning warmth in Robert’s heart that hides underneath his actions.

+

Aaron visits Robert’s temple and is shocked to see how destroyed it is. The outside is as white and pristine as Aaron’s own temple, but when he enters it he sees destruction. The altar is broken in two or three pieces, graffiti smeared on one section of the long wall, and it looks like several people have taken a sledgehammer to it. It looks almost as bad as war’s temple and Aaron simply doesn’t understand why. He looks around with wide eyes and takes in the damage.

Aaron doesn’t have to say anything for Robert to know what he wants to ask.

“Not many people love me. In fact, a lot of them hate me.”

“But why?” Aaron asks, staring at the ceiling that’s so high it should have been safe but even there he can see damages.

Robert leans his hip against the broken altar and smiles sadly at Aaron. “I’m not very lovable. Plus the fact that a lot of humans are scared of the sea and the waters. They blame me for it.”

 _I love you_ , Aaron thinks. _This isn’t your fault._

+

When they fight, it’s a natural disaster waiting to happen.

They flatten mountains with a stomp of their feet, they form new lakes with a pounding of a fist and the winds whip around corner just as sharply as their voices do.

Robert isn’t the only destructive one between them.

Sometimes they fight so much about so many things that Aaron asks himself if Robert isn’t the god of deceit simply hiding behind the sea. But then he remembers how warm and genuine Robert’s chest  feels under Aaron’s hands and he knows it’s impossible to fool everyone about what’s in his deepest of hearts.

+

There will never be stories written about them.

There never will be any epics about the journey of their love, no tragedies about their obstacles, no love poems to inspire other humans.

There never will be any sonnets about the way Robert softly touches Aaron’s skin while they lie forehead to forehead, fingertips to lips, mouth to jawline, or tongue on skin. There never will be haikus about the change in Aaron’s voice when he moans Robert’s name, when Robert hushes that they need to be quiet, when they groan in surprise of how intense everything still feels, when they’re extra excited because they haven’t seen each other in a while and Aaron is speechless at the sight of Robert alone.

They wouldn’t be remembered by human minds but they had the memory of each other. And that is enough.

+

Aaron wakes up from bright lights falling on his eyelids. He raises an arm to shield his eyes but even that doesn’t help much. He opens his eyes, blinking into white sunshine. He tries to move but there’s Robert, naked, his arms wrapped tightly around Aaron, their legs tangled together. Aaron closes his eyes again and it takes him a second to remember how the both of them ended up where they were.

He blushes when he thinks about the tree that Robert had pinned him against, and he asks himself where the tree is now where a little shade wouldn’t go amiss. It barely takes a second before Aaron hears the rustling of leafs and the wind flares up, his eyes not staring into bright red anymore but black. He opens his eyes to see the extended branches of the tree and its leaves, enough of them to coat Robert and him into softness and take the burning from their skin.

Robert stirs next to him and buries his face into Aaron’s neck, reaching out to tangle their fingers together.

“It’s always so bright in your homeworld,” Robert grumbles, but the kiss he places on Aaron’s shoulder takes the heat out of the complaint.

“I could make it up to you,” Aaron says, rolling over in Robert’s arms so he can watch Robert bloom in the morning.

“Do you now?” Robert raises his eyebrows, the corners of his mouth pulling up into a smile. His smile is almost as blinding as the sun around them.

“Hmm,” Aaron hums and runs his thumb over Robert’s eyebrow. Robert kisses his wrist.

“Well,” Robert says, “I do remember promising you to kiss every inch of your body last night.”

Aaron tilts his head so their noses bump together. “That would take a pretty long time, wouldn’t it?”

Robert laughs and begins to fulfill his promise by kissing Aaron on the lips, the kiss long and lingering. The leaves above them rustle and the light shifts, letting specks of sunshine move through, enveloping both of them in warmth.

“Good thing we have forever then,” Robert murmurs, brushing his hand all the way over Aaron’s spine. It sends a shiver over Aaron’s skin and he feels himself set ablaze.

“Forever,” Aaron whispers.

**Author's Note:**

> Please let me know what you think and thanks for reading! I'm at [softrobertsugden](softrobertsugden.tumblr.com) if you want to visit


End file.
